I know it's getting repetitive, but "Circle Us" is one of the clearest examples why the focus of the show and every episode must be on Dexter. For the first three-fourths of the episode I was thinking, "Damn, this is a good episode, maybe in the 9 range." But of course LaGuerta has to ruin everything. She wants to arrest the Fuentes brothers outside. What does she do, knowing there's a secret door inside the club? First she sends the informant to sit with them, then sends an armed undercover cop to sit with them for no good reason. And she has the gall to say "If mistakes were made, they were certainly not mine." I thought we'd gotten over the LaGuerta-is-a-total-bitch phase!
Still, I really liked a large majority of the episode. With Dexter and Lumen working together, "Circle Us" contains a bunch of revelations. It turns out that Jordan Shaw, the speaker Boyd listened to, was one of the guys who kidnapped Lumen. In addition, it looks like Shaw's bodyguard Cole, who was also in on it, Shaw, and Boyd were all buddies years ago.
Dexter and Lumen are shaping up to be an awesome team, and oddly enough, a team you get root for. Together they're fighting against true evil, and there's little room to budge: Dexter and Lumen are the good guys.
What's going on with the nanny? Dexter doesn't like the statue, but accepts it at the end of the episode. Are we supposed to care about the nanny at this point? I don't see any clues pointing to the nanny being a villain of some sort, other than that it's the nature of the show to turn seemingly innocuous characters into crazy people.
Quinn wants to get a place with Deb, but Robocop keeps pushing him for more money in exchange for information. Robocop does a great job enticing Quinn by telling him a few accurate details to whet his appetite.
Score: 8.8/10
